Phase+3-+Findings+and+Analysis

Mickernst is a 15 year old student of Haitian descent. He, as well as his siblings were born in the USA but he claims that he is Haitian. He comes to my class during as a service student. Both of his parents attended college here in the USA and his two older sibling are in college. He express a very strong desire to attend college and it is through these informal conversations that I was able to collect the needed information. His family is very close and family life is very important to him and he claims to treasure the times they spend together. He describes his parents as being very strict, his mother is the disciplinarian. According to him she "goes off for no reason." He plays the piano and is a member of a basketball club and listens to music from the French and English Caribbean.

When asked if he consciously speaks differently at home and with his friends he responded in the affirmative. He claims that he spoke Haitian Creole before English. He speaks Haitian Creole, English and some French at home. He explains that he can understand French but has difficulty when it comes to speaking. He claims his father is very strict about him not using 'black English' so he "plays it safe with Creole". In his speech I observed that he seldom uses the **//'s//** to show possession and discovered that was also evident in his writing. He loves to say, 'dead ass' instead of are you serious or seriously. When interacting with adults, Mickernst is extremely polite and apologizes whenever he changes register.

E.g.
 * //Tr. : " So when do you have 6th period lunch?"//**
 * //Mick: Yeah...'ah mean yes Miss I have lunch then." //**

 When with his peers, he is very informal.  **//Mick: "Yo Abu how much yuh bettin dat Kobe was wid dah Hornets before dah Lakers."//**  **//Friend 1: " five dollars an Mr P project"//**  **//Mick: "Time out, time out. You dead ass bettin da project? Yooooooooo!!"//**  **//Friend 2:" Hold up, Hold up...You jus bet Mr P project? You is a ass yo, you is a real ass."//**  **//Mick: " Word."//**



Olivion is also a sophomore. His speech seems well articulated and grammatically correct. I learned the he is also Haitian American. He says that is the only way he will describe himself because his family is from Haiti and the values which he is taught are those found within the Haitian culture.. He claims that he comes from a disciplined home and plays chess, football and some soccer. He speaks Haitian Creole and English. He explained that he understands French but is not fluent. He described his family as moderately religious. He declared that his parents are strict in different ways. His mother is very strict about his deportment. He claims that as much as it irks him, he knows the she is correct when she insists that he avoids hip hop fashion because that will "cause the cops to label and target me." His father insists on excellent grades because he is making sacrifices for him.

With the exception of the use of slang, Olivion's speech is void of evidence from Ebonics or Haitian Creole. I asked him to explain some of the current slang we talked about short story writing and through that I was able to acquire a sample of his writing. During our interviews we conversed about his mannerism. He is very polite and says that he is aware that his speech often sounds odd when he was with his friends in the lunch room. He explained the he attended kindergarten and elementary school Buffalo before his family moved to Brooklyn. He explained that he had some difficulty adjusting to the pace of New York and was often picked on. He believed that he was eventually left alone because he can fight and also because he is a beast in football.





Nicholas, another sophomore, is from Jamaica. He was born inthe USA but was raised by his grandmother in Jamaica. He told me that when he returned to live with his family here his patois was so deep that he was placed in ESL classes. According to him, they tried to take the Jamaican is out of his speech but in real life "ah Gaza mi seh". He uses the formal language in the classroom when speaking to teachers but with his friends he uses the Jamaican dialect. He claims that his outlook on life is the reality of what he sees on the streets, "you gonna either get killed, shot or go to jail." He listens to 'gansta rap' and Dancehall music. He follows the music of Vybz Kartel and uses most of his expressions in his speech.In the classroom Nicholas's uses standard English but with his friends he is very difficult to comprehend because he uses only the Jamaican patois. His writing reflects error consistent that of Ebonics.





Sharika.